RAFAEL NADAL won 17 games in a row to reach the quarter-finals of the French Open – and then apologised to his opponent for the one-sided nature of the scoreline.

The defending champion’s 6-2 6-0 6-0 victory over Juan Monaco meant he has lost only 19 games in his first four matches, the fewest at Roland Garros since Guillermo Vilas in 1982.

Nadal said: “When I had the first break, I started to play very well. Before I didn’t play fantastic, but he started the match playing aggressive, playing good shots.

“In my opinion, he was unlucky in the first set. That’s my feeling, 6-2 was too much. Later, for sure I was very happy the way I played. I feel very, very sorry for him.

“I think he’s playing probably the best tennis of his career, but probably not today, especially in the last set. I saw him suffering a little bit on court at the end. He’s one of my best friends on tour.”

Nadal now meets 12th seed Nicolas Almagro, but with every match it seems more and more unlikely that anyone will be able to deny him a record seventh title at Roland Garros.

The Spaniard, who celebrated his 26th birthday on Sunday, said of his winning streak: “It’s the only thing I could do so that I could fight back. This does happen in special circumstances. But I’m not certain that this could be repeated again. It’s due to circumstances, the conditions were all favourable at this moment in time.

“This is how I managed to win these 17 games. This result is lopsided. I shouldn’t have this type of score against one of the best players in the world.”

Almagro, who is also yet to lose a set, knocked out eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic 6-4 6-4 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals.